Remains of Boston bombing suspect claimed

May 3, 2013
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Tamerlan Tsarnaev / AP

by Donna Leinwand Leger, USA TODAY

by Donna Leinwand Leger, USA TODAY

A mortuary familiar with Muslim services will handle funeral arrangements for Boston Marathon bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev, who died in a gunbattle with police after an intense manhunt, a funeral director said Friday.

Peter Stefan, owner of Graham Putnam and Mahoney Funeral Parlors in Worcester confirmed his facility will handle Tsarnaev's arrangements but he could not confirm whether he has possession of the body.

Stefan said everybody deserves a dignified burial service no matter the circumstances of their death and he is prepared for protests. He added that arrangements have yet to be worked out.

Several protesters showed up outside a North Attleborough funeral home Thursday night where Tsarnaev's body was taken following its release by the state medical examiner.

Timothy Nay of the Dyer-Lake Funeral Home said he is no longer in possession of the body.

Authorities are now closer to being able to make public Tsarnaev's cause of death.

Tsarnaev's remains were released at 5:30 p.m. Thursday by the Massachusetts Office of the Chief Medical Examiner to the funeral service retained by Tsarnaev's family, spokesman Terrel Harris said.

The medical examiner's office does not make public the name of the family member who claimed the body or the funeral home that is handling the remains, he said. Tsarnaev's widow, Katherine Russell, issued a statement earlier this week saying she would relinquish her rights to his remains to his family.

The medical examiner determined the cause of death Monday, but the death certificate will not become public until the funeral service files it at Boston City Hall, Harris said. City Hall is closed for the day, so the death certificate will not be filed today.

Tsarnaev, 26, died April 19 after a gunfight with police in Watertown, Mass. Police said he was walking toward police, shooting, when he ran out of ammunition. Police tackled him and had him on the ground when his brother, Dzhokhar, ran over him while fleeing the scene.

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19, is charged with using a weapon of mass destruction to kill and is being held in a prison hospital while he recovers from gunshot wounds.